In total, the Maharashtra government has admitted to 1,382 additional deaths in the state, taking the state tally to 5,510
MUMBAI| After multiple allegations of hiding COVID-19 deaths, Maharashtra government on Tuesday finally released the reconciled figure of the total number of people killed by the deadly novel coronavirus in the state. After reconciliation, Maharashtra’s death toll has risen sharply.
New data shows in Mumbai, the death toll stands at 2,312 instead of 2,250, the figure put out by the government earlier. The state government has added 862 in the city’s COVID-19 death toll during data reconciliation.
In the rest of Maharashtra, the government increased the death toll by 466. In total, the Maharashtra government has admitted to 1,382 additional deaths in the state, taking the state tally to 5,510.
The COVID-19 deaths in the state registered the spike as Maharashtra government had directed all district collectors and municipal bodies to reconcile the data as a lot of deaths were found unreported. Even as the order to reconcile data was issued on June 10, five days later on June 15 leader of opposition in Maharashtra and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis accused the Thackeray government of hiding the correct death toll.
In a letter written to CM Uddhav Thackeray, Devendra Fadnavis had said, “Before announcing a Covid-19 related death, it goes to the Death Audit Committee formed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). We have noticed that there are at least 451 recent deaths that were not declared as Covid-19 deaths. As per the ICMR guidelines, these were Covid-19 deaths but the Death Audit Committee showed these as non-COVID-19 deaths.”
The BJP leader has also alleged that 500 COVID-19 deaths in Maharashtra have not been reported to the audit committee.
Fadnavis claimed in his letter, “Secondly, there were 500 coronavirus-related deaths that were not reported to the Death Audit Committee. So there are around 950 COVID deaths that are suppressed. This is serious and criminal in nature.”
While refuting the opposition’s charge, the Maharashtra government said that they have nothing to hide. Mumbai Guardian Minister Aslam Shaikh said, “It is unfortunate that while the world is facing pandemic, the opposition is indulging in politics. We are conducting more tests than any other state. We have nothing to hide.”
The government has said that the delay in Covid-19 data reconciliation was caused by factors like test reports coming after the deaths. However, the government has accepted that many of the government, as well as private hospitals, had not maintained death reports properly.
Lastly, the government said, that some of the private hospitals did not report the deaths as Covid-19 deaths in cases where the deceased had tested positive for novel coronavirus during treatment but died of co-morbidities like a heart attack.
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